Qualcomm teases major announcement for easier Android updates

Summary

• Qualcomm to announce improvements for Android update ecosystem later this year.
• Most mid-range and budget Android phones receive limited OS updates due to older chipsets.
• Qualcomm’s announcement aims to facilitate faster updates for Android phones, benefiting the entire ecosystem.

The Android update ecosystem has significantly improved in recent years. Although Pixel phones still receive new OS updates first, manufacturers like Samsung, OnePlus, and others have accelerated their update rollouts, providing timely updates for their devices. They are now promising five to seven years of software support for their phones, up from two to three years until 2021. But the problem is that these improvements only apply to premium Android phones, with software support still being poor for budget devices. Qualcomm will seemingly announce something later this year to fix this problem.

Updating an Android phone to a new OS or security patch requires considerable resources and testing. The chip vendor also plays a key role in this process, as they must provide the relevant binaries and drivers. Over the years, Google has worked closely with Qualcomm and other SoC vendors to speed up this process. And while there have been improvements, they have mostly benefited flagship phones.

Most mid-range and budget Android phones only get one or two OS updates, typically arriving after a long delay. This is primarily down to them running older chipsets, which do not get the same extensive software support as their more expensive siblings.

In an interview with Android Authority, Qualcomm’s SVP and General Manager of Handsets, Chris Patrick, revealed that the company has been working with Google and device makers to “change the structure of inline code — to kind of change the machinery for how we do those updates.” While this work has been going on behind the scenes for years, Qualcomm appears to have a major announcement on this front.

Qualcomm has a big announcement in store for later this year

Patrick teased an announcement from Qualcomm later this year about “some of those changes we’ve made to facilitate this and help the whole ecosystem keep Android phones closer to up to date.” It’s difficult to ascertain what the Qualcomm executive is hinting at. Whatever they are, though, here’s hoping they apply to the company’s existing range of SoCs instead of the upcoming chips.

As for the announcement, it should happen at Qualcomm’s yearly Snapdragon Summit. The event is typically held in November every year, though in 2023, it took place a bit early. This year’s Summit, too, will take place in October.